Do Religious People Have More Self-Esteem Than Non-Believers?

According to an analysis of questionnaire responses from the European dating website eDarling, religious people tend to have a higher self-esteem than non-believers, especially in countries with high value on religion.

Researchers used answers from 187,957 people in 11 different European countries. The questionnaire included how important your personal religious beliefs are and questions that identify social self-esteem.

In countries where most people aren't religious, religious people didn't have higher self-esteem.

"We think you only pat yourself on the back for being religious if you live in a social system that values religiosity," said lead researcher Jochen Gebauer of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. “The same might be true when you compare different states in the U.S. or different cities.”